Why government should close wildlife markets

The Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF) under its Save Vulture Campaign aimed at saving vultures from extinction in Africa said yesterday it was exploring strategies to ensure the closure of wildlife markets in Nigeria.

The Project Lead for the campaign, Solomon Adefolu noted that the existence of the open wildlife market remains a challenge to the campaign against the continued decimation of the vulture, saying, “Government should see reason why these markets need to be closed down.”

He spoke in Lagos during a press conference to give report on the Save Vulture Campaign; a two-year programme of the NCF to draw the nation’s attention to the danger of vulture extinction.

Adefolu was flanked at the conference by the Director of Technical Programmes of the NCF, Dr. Joseph Onoja, and Tito Da Fire, one of the celebrities appointed to join the Save Vulture Campaign.

He stressed that the NCF was working closely with the government and other stakeholders in various communities especially the wildlife traders to stop the trade in vulture without impacting negatively on the livelihood of the people at the grassroots.

One of the strategies being explored, he disclosed was to partner forest guards to strengthen surveillance and management of the protected areas, saying, “If the products do not get to the markets, the markets would die naturally.”

He however noted that in the last two years when the campaign started, there has been a drastic reduction after engagement with the communities cutting across three states in the South-West.

According to him, after the conduct of the assessment in the three states of Ogun, Ondo and Osun, it was discovered that “vulture is being decimated daily as a result of beliefbased use as people are using vulture as a component of their traditional concoction.”

NCF’s Director of Technical Programmes pointed out that the decimation of vultures posed serious threat to human existence as it exposes humans to all kinds of diseases.

Decrying the continued decimation of vultures, he said vultures help in clearing the environment of carcasses that could breed diseases, saying the problem started in India where they had 95 per cent decline in vulture population.